Question: A few families took a trip to an amusement park together. Tickets cost $$8.00$ each for adults and $$3.50$ each for kids, and the group paid $$60.00$ in total. There were $4$ fewer adults than kids in the group. Find the number of adults and kids on the trip.
Answer: Let $x$ equal the number of adults and $y$ equal the number of kids. The system of equations is then: ${8x+3.5y = 60}$ ${x = y-4}$ Solve for $x$ and $y$ using substitution. Since $x$ has already been solved for, substitute ${y-4}$ for $x$ in the first equation. ${8}{(y-4)}{+ 3.5y = 60}$ Simplify and solve for $y$ $ 8y-32 + 3.5y = 60 $ $ 11.5y-32 = 60 $ $ 11.5y = 92 $ $ y = \dfrac{92}{11.5} $ ${y = 8}$ Now that you know ${y = 8}$ , plug it back into ${x = y-4}$ to find $x$ ${x = }{(8)}{ - 4}$ ${x = 4}$ You can also plug ${y = 8}$ into ${8x+3.5y = 60}$ and get the same answer for $x$ ${8x + 3.5}{(8)}{= 60}$ ${x = 4}$ There were $4$ adults and $8$ kids.